This is Lake Ponchatrain. The force of the hurrican forced the waters through the levys. And since there was so much water, obviously, the levys broke.
This is a picture of the levy that broke in this area of town...notice the panels on the right hand side. These are the one that were replaced.
Most peoples homes were completey destroyed in this area. If you were living in a "stick house" you would have lost it all. The brick structures were a bit luckier. The flood waters rose to heights of 4 -6 feet here within 45 mins...how scary would that be. Once the flood waters receded, people had to take everything out of their homes and stip them down to the bar studs.But as the water was rushing in, some people had so much water coming into their homes that they had to chop their way out of the roof...they had got themselves stuck inside when the flood waters came so quickly. Some people didn't make it out.
When the troops finally came to check for people and pets ect...they would make a mark in the shape of a X on the outside front part of the house. In the top part they would put the date. ie: 9/19 then in the left middle they would put the troop #, the right middle would denote if they found any people and the bottom would be for if they found any animals at this address. I am not sure if you can see it here in the pic, but it is on the right side of the porch...Also, this home became a station for the SPCA. It was where folks could pick up food and water for their pets. Sad...
And this boat was found "parked" in front of the SPCA house....it was there when the waters finally receded and it hasnt been removed since then. Let's remember that Hurricane Katrina was 2 and 1/2 years ago....
Ironically, the French Quarter is the highest point in New Orleans, so as such, there was no damage from the flood waters there.
They say that the quater is 95% full again but the rest of the area is only about 75% full. That equates to about 200,000 people that haven't returned to New Orleans
The statistics show that 27% of the people of New Orleans had NO insurance and the most of the ones that did are fighting with their insurance company's. That is if the company itself didnt go broke....so scary and sad.
There is still alot of crime in New Orleans....especially if you get outside of the the quarter at night. But oddly, we both felt safe enough while we were there....we actually had some nice folks stop and pick us up one night as we were walking back to our truck after dinner. They didn't want us to walk at night in this area. It was only ONE block outside of the quarter.
And still they have folks living under the interstate in tents and panhandling. The city has put porta potties there so they space is relatively clean and each person has their own space for their "stuff"
Again, New Orleans, the city that is indiscrimately charming....
More later
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